I feel like now the real world is much more scarier than horror in media, I kinda got desensitized to fear in horror games. Still scary, but I remember being much more terrified when I was younger.
Much more as a middle aged person than when I was a teen / younger adult. Probably still less scared than when I was a little kid.
I watched a lot of darker / violent movies when I was 15-25, and really enjoyed them. But over time I started finding horrible stuff happening really hard to watch. It’s not so much the fear, it’s just that I can now empathise and imagine suffering in a way that I just couldn’t when I was young.
I can’t enjoy a stupid slasher movie when all I can think of is how the families of the dead teens would have to deal with the grief. Even action movies, unless they’re pretty campy, just remind me of what real people genuinely and tragically have to experience.
It’s kinda shitty. Sometimes I think i need to desensitise myself, but it also means that older movies where violence and darkness is often implied are still really impactful.
Horror scared me as a kid, and still scares me now, hence why I don’t watch it or play horror-based video games.
Definitely younger. I started watching horror movies at 4 or 5 so I’m pretty desensitized to most types of horror, but am constantly chasing that feeling. Jump scares and gore do nothing for me, I want “afraid to turn off the lights” or paranoid anxiety for few hours after. That’s the good stuff.
I grew up watching horror movies and was largely detached from the fear, it never got to me outside the occasional jump scare. Sometime in my 30s that started to change, and then I also made some bad choices like watching horror movies after eating too many shrooms, which has made it worse. I still occasionally enjoy horror but mostly I find the genre unpleasantly stressful. My body in general seems to be a lot more reactive. When I was a kid I once had a chunk of glass impale my hand, which I dealt with totally calmly as blood gushed all over. Recently I cut my hand while cooking and nearly passed out and threw up. I think I am getting soft as I age.
Younger for sure, watching horror movies on a CRT from VHS, when you are pre-teen or something, is scary! Now I am completely desensitized from them, they do nothing for me, and I don’t watch them anymore, I prefer to watch something else.
Definitely younger. Like at a pretty young age I actually got scared of stuff on TV and movies. The only stuff that actually gets me now is jump scares which isn’t actual fear.
I doubt the current state of the world played as much of a factor in your desensitization to horror compared to the development of your brain and continued exposure to horror content throughout your life.
I was terrified of a monkey stuffed animal as a kid. Didn’t need genocide and Trump’s second term to grow out of that.
Younger cos I just don’t believe in the supernatural at all
Horror was way scarier when I believed in the supernatural. Now it’s just a bunch of contrived jump scares with Halloween costumes and occasional titties
Both. I always have been and probably always will be easily terrified with horror media.
Maybe a hot take, but I’ve never really found horror to be scary at any age. I enjoy it more for the tension and suspense. And cool shit that happens in dark fantastical settings. In fact a lot of movies lose their edge when they reveal “the monster”. It’s better to imagine or only have a slight glimpse, or else it risks getting cheesy.
deleted by creator
